Divinity

Every witch has a specialty – a method to connect with nature unique to each individual. Many witches use crystals, herbs, or candles in their practices and rituals, but a witch’s true power comes from what she can create. Mother Nature is an artist, and her daughters take after her.

Meredith was a late bloomer. Her mother and sisters were gardeners, but she never had the green thumb that they did. Seeing Meredith struggle with the herbs in the garden, looking enviously at her more skillful sisters, Meredith’s mother encouraged her to help in other areas so she could discover her worth.

Meredith’s older sister, Reina, had an amazing connection to her herbs. They grew eagerly, lush and colorful, and produced the richest flavors and bouquets. Their younger sister, Amalthea, preferred the soft petals and bright colors of blossoming flowers. She was quick to memorize the meanings and uses of each type of flower. She knew which ones had medicinal properties and which were safe to eat.

Their mother kept a fruit and vegetable garden. She taught her daughters there until they were able to branch out on their own. Meredith stayed there much longer than her sisters. Her small patch of beans refused to grow, and the peach tree she tried to take on grew sick. She helped with other things, drying and jarring what her family grew, she cooked and cleaned and sewed, she tried drawing, painting, and sculpting. She was good at most things, but there was nothing she excelled in.

Heavily involved in the community, her family was eager to participate in a bake sale to raise money for the local school. Meredith, her mother, and her sisters, each decided to make their own treat. Reina found a recipe for gingersnap cookies, Amalthea decided to make one of her favorite treats, sticky buns, and their mother settled on classic walnut brownies.

Meredith wanted to make a chocolate cake, and sell them by the slice. Amalthea thought that sounded delicious, but Reina was concerned that it wouldn’t be appropriate for a bake sale. Her mother, however, encouraged her to do what she felt was right.

After researching different chocolate cake recipes, Meredith was inspired to try making her own unique cake. Using the natural ingredients her family and others in their rural community grew, Meredith practiced making a few small cakes until she had the perfect recipe. The cake itself was a moist, rich chocolate, infused with lavender and mint from Reina’s herb garden. The icing was also homemade, and included some honey. It was decorated with raspberries from her mother, and crystalized dianthus blossoms from Amalthea.

She made five round cakes. Four of them were cut into eight slices, put on a decorative plate, and wrapped with cellophane to be sold at the bake sale. The final cake, Meredith shared with her family, and they all shared what they had made.

Reina’s gingersnap cookies were cut into various shapes and given light decorations with different jellied berries. Meredith thought they were good, but a little dry, and the jellies were a little too sour. Amalthea’s sticky buns were made to look like little cat paws. The flavor was good, but the sticky icing was uncomfortably messy. Their mother’s walnut brownies were good, if a little bland.

By far, the best baked good was Meredith’s chocolate cake. The variety of flavors complimented each other perfectly, the texture was excellent, the icing well-proportioned. It even looked amazing, like something seen in a shop window.

At the bake sale, there were dozens of delicious treats. The witch family, well known for their impressive gardening skills, had the most popular booth. Most people bought one of each of the treats. Meredith beamed with pride, for once not feeling left out as everyone commented on how delicious her cake looked. Everyone took turns taking a bit of money and going around to the other booths to buy a couple of treats for themselves. When Meredith took her turn, she bought a pretzel and chocolate croissant. While she walked around looking at her neighbor’s booths, she saw some people trying the chocolate cake they had bought from her booth, and telling each other about it.

“This is the best chocolate cake I’ve ever had!” Mrs. Hendricks said, nearly finished with her slice.

“Is it really homemade?” Alexis asked, also taking a bite from her own plate.

“Meredith made it,” Mrs. Hendricks told her.

“Her mother must have helped her,” Alexis said with an understanding nod, as if that was the only way to explain why the cake was so delicious.

Meredith’s face fell. The pride she had been feeling was replaced with shame. She wondered if everyone assumed she hadn’t been able to make the cake herself. Everyone knew she was no good at anything, not like her sisters. No one doubted that Reina had made the gingersnap cookies, or even that little Amalthea shaped, baked, and iced the sticky buns herself.

She wanted to leave the bake sale and go home, but she wasn’t allowed to walk that far by herself. She stayed in the background, feeling bitter as her cake slices sold out quickly and people complimented her mother on it, requesting more.

Once they got home, Meredith went to bed without a word. Her mother decided to give her space, though she was worried about her. The next morning, Reina and Amalthea went out to the garden early, and Meredith and her mother had tea and pancakes in the kitchen.

“You don’t have to talk to me alone like this,” Meredith complained. “There’s nothing wrong.”

“Well, it’s clear there’s something wrong,” her mother argued. “I just don’t know what. The bake sale was amazing, everyone loved your cake! I thought you were excited about baking.”

“I was,” Meredith answered uncomfortably. “It’s just that . . . I thought this would finally be my thing, you know? Everyone knows you and my sisters have their special skills, but I don’t.”

“I don’t understand. You took to baking like a duck to water, and your sisters’ treats were good, but they were nothing like yours. It takes years to develop baking skills, but you were practically a professional on your first try!”

“It wasn’t my first try,” Meredith reminded her, looking down into her tea. She remembered a time she had tried to get into reading tea leaves, but never felt passionate about it. “I’ve helped you bake since I was little.”

“A few times, yes, that’s true.”

“And I used ingredients from your garden and my sister’s garden. Reina helped me add the herbs, too. Besides, I heard people talking about my cake. No one believed that I could do something like that by myself. Maybe they’re right.”

“That’s not true – I told everyone that you’d made the cake from scratch by yourself. Everyone was so impressed.”

Meredith hummed, looking down in shame. “I guess . . . I really only heard one comment. I shouldn’t have let it get to me like that.”

“It’s okay, Mer, but there’s something else I want to tell you.”

Meredith looked up at her mother eagerly. She always gave the best advice.

“You know we always remember to give thanks to Mother Nature,” she reminded her. “Part of learning to be a witch is to learn that we are strongest when we work together. Anything you can do yourself, you can do better with your sister witches. And just like you need us, we need you.”

“I never thought of it like that,” Meredith said. “I always envied my sisters; they could always grow their herbs and flowers without any help at all.”

“But you did help, you always have! You’ve helped them weed and water, you’ve helped them dry their plants and collect oils from them, you were even the one who taught Amalthea that some flower blossoms could be eaten. None of us would be the witches we are today without you.”

Meredith smiled at her mother, feeling a burn behind her eyes. “Thanks, Mom.”

Her mother gave her a kind smile that reached her eyes, and squeezed her hand. “Good. Why don’t we go work in the gardens some more, and later, we can look at recipes and see if there’s something else you want to try baking?”

“That sounds great!” Meredith agreed. She jumped to her feet and hurried out the back door to join her sisters.

When Meredith grew up, she opened a bake shop, using her family’s ingredients to bake an arrangement of pastries and breads. Her treats became widely known for their unique flavor combinations. She got married and had two girls and a little boy, and she was delighted to teach what she’d learned with them, and helped them find their own passions.